Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter series.
Wounding
Something in the warm summer breeze prevented Narcissa from truly falling asleep. Instead, she stared at the canopy above her, thoughts suspended between dreams and reality. But as minutes of sleeplessness turned into a half-hour, so too did dreams and reality blend into memory. Any summer before this, Narcissa would not have nestled under the covers so early. Any summer before this, Bellatrix would have made sure that they did not miss running through the darkness of the Witching Hour.
At the conjured memory, Narcissa wondered what the time was, sliding her feet from beneath the sheets to the floor. She tiptoed to Andromeda's room. Suddenly, the summer night felt less lonely.
Andromeda stood in the night air of her balcony, tying a letter to an owl's talon.
With a soft caw, the owl flew from Andromeda's hand, disappearing into the darkness.
Andromeda's gaze lingered behind the owl's flight.
Narcissa crept up behind Andromeda and whispered in her ear, "Who were you owling this late at night?"
Narcissa giggled, but Andromeda gasped.
"Cissy, you scared me! I didn't know you were still awake."
Narcissa shrugged. "I wanted to go to sleep… but the witching hour is near."
"Oh, I suppose it is." Andromeda smiled, her memories just as fond. "So shall we run across the lawn? Dance under the moon? Cry out to the stars?"
Narcissa trailed her fingers along the banister. Quietude settled between them.
Narcissa spoke hesitantly, "It all sounds rather silly now, doesn't it? I mean, without Bella, it would just be childish."
Andromeda nodded quickly. With a shiver, she walked inside, and Narcissa followed. She sat on the edge of Andromeda's bed and watched her sister put away her stationary.
Narcissa asked once more, "Who was the letter for?"
"What? Oh, it was for Bella."
"Oh, that makes sense, I suppose. She will be up still. I just thought maybe…"
"Cissy…" Andromeda warned.
Right, Narcissa thought. That conversation was completely off limits.
Something like a crack of lightning split through the night silence.
"Was that thunder?" Narcissa chirped.
Andromeda looked up. "No, I don't think so… it sounded like someone just apparated."
They sat frozen on Andromeda's bed, fearfully wondering who would pay such a late night visit. But curiosity overtook fear, and they hurried to the window through which the sound had arrived.
Just visible through the moonlight, a figure hurried across the lawn.
"It's Bella," Narcissa sighed, half-relieved, half-surprised.
Andromeda nodded solemnly. Narcissa watched in confusion as Andromeda hurried from the window towards her door.
"She's hurt."
As Andromeda left the room, Narcissa wondered how her sister had come to such a conclusion at just a glance. Narcissa thought that lately Andromeda worried too much about Bella. Bellatrix might forgo reason for passion, true, but she was perfectly able to take care of herself.
Narcissa questioned this belief immediately as Andromeda reentered the room a few minutes later.
Narcissa gasped. "Bella!"
Andromeda's arm was wound tightly around Bellatrix's middle, as though Bella would fall down had the extra support not been in place. As for Bella's own arm, it was stained with blood. Crimson poured from a wound on Bella's left shoulder where a rip in the fabric revealed a deep gash.
"Don't just stand there gawking, Cissy. Help me!"
Narcissa stuttered a few more phrases of disbelief before sliding her arm under the arm Andromeda did not support. Profanities spilled from Bellatrix's mouth as quickly as the blood flowed from her shoulder. Narcissa and Andromeda sat her on the edge of the bed.
Upon being released, Bella clapped her hand to the open cut. "I tried everything and it won't stop bleeding," she sobbed, almost to the point of sounding hysterical.
"Well, healing spells have never been your specialty."
Andromeda removed Bella's hand and replaced it with a small throw pillow.
"Just hold that there until I think of something."
Narcissa didn't trust herself to speak, for fear that her voice would waver and crack. But as a tiny whimper slipped from Bellatrix's lips, Narcissa broke. "Andromeda, think of something; she's really hurt."
"I can see that, Narcissa!"
Slowly, Andromeda pulled the pillow away from the wound. "Tergeo," she muttered, wiping the blood from Bella's skin and sleeve. The results of the spell lasted only temporarily as fresh streams trailed from the cut. Andromeda peered into the gash, Narcissa shuddered.
"Bella, I can't work with your sleeve in the way," Andromeda said, fumbling with the edge of Bella's cuff.
Bellatrix yanked her arm away from Andromeda. Andromeda bit her lip. Bellatrix looked down, then slid the top of her dress lower down her arm. "Just fix my shoulder, Andromeda!"
The awkward, unexplainable tension that Narcissa had come to so loathe filled the room.
Andromeda murmured incantations, almost to herself, with her wand hovering over the injury. Silent tears slid down Bella's face. Narcissa gulped and squeezed her sister's hand. Bellatrix pulled her hand away from Narcissa's and wiped her cheeks quickly.
"Ow, ow, Merlin," Bella cried. "Ah. Stop, that's not helping."
Andromeda withdrew her wand immediately, staring worriedly at Bellatrix whose eyes were shut tightly, lips set in a grimace.
"I'm sorry, Bella. Normal healing charms aren't helping," Andromeda said. "How did this happen?"
"I…" Bella became quiet. "I was practicing a spell and it rebounded."
Narcissa looked at the still bleeding cut. It was not the result of the sort of magic taught at Hogwarts.
"What kind of magic leaves a gash like this?"
"I told you," Bella growled, "Just a spell that was giving me trouble."
"Bella, why can't you-"
"Cissy, it doesn't matter; I think the bleeding is subsiding now," Andromeda scolded. She sighed as she examined her work. "It's nothing a Healer could do…"
"Bella, why didn't you just go to St. Mungo's?"
Andromeda and Bellatrix shared a glance.
"Because they ask too many questions," Andromeda said, frowning at her older sister.
"Like some other people I know," Bellatrix grumbled, feeling her shoulder tentatively. Red droplets seeped from skin under Bella's fingertips. Wincing, she examined her darkened fingers. "Meda, I don't think your charms are holding."
"Stop touching it, Bella," Andromeda said, pulling her sister's hand away from the wound.
Bellatrix's eyes lingered on her bloodied fingers clasped in Andromeda's hand.
Narcissa wondered if her sister was merely entranced by the purity of her own blood, or if she was realizing for the first time her own vulnerability.
Andromeda stared at her sister, and slowly pulled her fingers away from Bella's.
"Cissy, go look for a book in Father's study. Or a potion. Something to fix this," Andromeda ordered. Her eyes were affixed on Bella's shoulder.
Narcissa glared at Andromeda. "No."
Bella looked indignant. "What?"
"The only reason you need me to go looking for something is because you want me to leave," Narcissa said. She quivered; saying it out loud didn't make it any better.
"Then take a hint and go," Andromeda snapped.
Narcissa's eyes clouded over, and she turned away from her sisters before she could feel even more foolish.
"Cissy," Bella laughed tentatively. "Meda didn't mean it like that."
Narcissa flinched away as Bella's fingers brushed her arm.
"Yes she did. You haven't been around her as much as I have lately, but she's awful."
"Don't talk like I'm not here."
Narcissa felt Bella's eyes hover on the back of her head.
"Stop it, you two. I came here to get some help, not counsel children," Bella finally said.
Narcissa scoffed and left the room. She was not in the mood for Bella's tactless jokes. Still, as she closed the door behind her with more force than was necessary, Narcissa slid to the floor with her ear pressed to the crack.
"What's the matter with you?" Narcissa heard Bellatrix hiss. "You cannot treat Cissy like that."
Andromeda's reply was too muffled for Narcissa to interpret. Feeling increasingly foolish, Narcissa slid onto her stomach so that she could peer through the gap between floor and door.
"I don't care if you are restless, Andromeda. Fighting with Cissy isn't going to help anything. Especially when you two are the most passive aggressive babies I know."
"Well you could take a page or two out of our passive aggressive books, Bellatrix," Andromeda replied, her voice shrill.
"Calm down, Meda. I'm the one with a sliced up shoulder."
"Which is exactly why I will not calm down!"
Bellatrix stopped arguing as she, like Narcissa, saw Andromeda wipe something from her eye.
"Bella, you aren't as unbreakable as you think you are."
Looking away from Andromeda to her shoulder, Bellatrix's face fell to something like shame, disappointment in herself.
Andromeda stared at Bellatrix, then pulled an invisible thread from Bella's tattered sleeve.
"When, Bella," she asked quietly.
Bellatrix remained silent.
"When are you going to stop hiding things from your sisters?"
"I'm hiding nothing."
Andromeda threw her hands into the air and walked away from Bellatrix, only to whip back again.
"No, no. Of course not. I'm just paranoid. How silly of me to think I could read my sister!"
Bellatrix started to protest.
"Bellatrix! Listen to me. I want to know why you're always tired, why it looks like you're losing weight, why we fight so much, why you're seem to enjoy spending more time in that drafty dark castle than here at home!" Andromeda's face paled, the words having slipped from her mouth before she realized.
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow.
"I live in that drafty dark castle, Meda. You're the only one who said I'm enjoying myself there."
A silence followed. Narcissa's curious eye found the keyhole.
Bellatrix stared straight ahead as Andromeda examined the wound.
"I really don't know what to do about this."
The tip of Andromeda's wand trailed over the ripped seams of skin. Bellatrix gritted her teeth. "You're overreacting, Meda. It's not that bad."
Behind Bella, Andromeda's face paled with insult.
"This will hurt."
Despite the warning, Bellatrix gave a low hiss as Andromeda wove her wand above the wound as though she were sewing.
"I'm not afraid of pain," Bella managed, her face a grimace of concentration.
Andromeda's lips were pressed tightly together. She mended Bellatrix's shoulder with a final weaving motion of her wand.
"I know that, Bella. You practically go looking for it."
Bellatrix smiled weakly, but her face fell into a frown as she caught sight of Andromeda's expression.
"Meda, I'm fine. Really, don't worry," Bella said. "I… you'll understand eventually. I know you will. But now, just trust me; never been better."
Narcissa swallowed. She wanted to believe her sister. But something about the sight of Bellatrix bleeding overwhelmed any vision of happiness in Narcissa mind. Besides, how could Bella really claim she was happy when Cissy and Meda were so obviously miserable?
Andromeda looked ten years older than seventeen as she sighed. "Well, if you aren't going to tell me, I have to trust you. But I don't think…"
"You don't think what?"
Andromeda shrugged.
"I'm scared for you, I guess."
"It's not hurting me, Meda," Bellatrix replied quickly.
Andromeda gave an odd laugh. "Then what's this?"
"It's only skin deep, Andromeda," Bella snapped, standing suddenly. She crossed her arms. Her voice, however, did not match the level of confidence. "Some things are worth a little pain."
Narcissa could feel the frustration radiate from Andromeda, and Narcissa silently urged her sister to breathe. There was no reasoning, no persuading Bella, through fighting words. Subtly was necessary, because Bellatrix didn't recognize subtly, and thus couldn't defend herself from it.
Andromeda closed her eyes.
"Just promise me, Bella."
Bellatrix, brow furrowed, stared fiercely at her sister.
"Anything, Meda."
Biting back the sour feeling of exclusion, Narcissa stood, brushed herself off, and turned the handle of the door.
She waited, unnoticed as Andromeda told Bella, "Thank you."
Narcissa coughed slightly.
"I couldn't find your book," she said.
Andromeda refused to meet her glare. "No," she said quietly, "I didn't think you would."
Bellatrix let out a heavy sigh. Andromeda bit her lip, casting Narcissa a fleetingly apologetic look. Narcissa shrugged off her sister's moodiness for the moment, deciding to pay her attentions to Bella.
"Did the bleeding stop?" Narcissa asked. She walked forward, protectiveness pulling her to Bella's side.
"Meda took care of me."
As Bella and Meda shared a mutual and highly private smile, something very unkind roared within Narcissa. Then a sharp stab of pain; jealousy towards Andromeda was blasphemous. Because Narcissa couldn't decide which feeling was worse, she chose an alternative. At least Bella was fine.
"Of course."
A little voice in Narcissa's head wondered why Bella wouldn't be fine. Why would Bella arrive, bleeding profusely, in the middle of the night? What was out there that could hurt Bella?
"It's not completely fixed. But with time," Andromeda said wisely, "it should heal."
Horrific scenarios plagued Narcissa's thoughts, and reason favored nightmares as she tried to answer her own questions. Suddenly, possessively, she didn't want Bellatrix to leave.
"But just in case…" Narcissa's voice trailed off, looking first from Bella to Andromeda, who understood.
"You should stay here for the night."
Bellatrix looked at the serious expressions on her sisters' faces and laughed. "I'm not dying."
"It's late. And what if traveling reopens the wound?" Andromeda's voice was steely, but Narcissa sensed the vulnerability beneath the statement. She knew the vulnerability beneath the statement. Andromeda didn't want anybody else taking care of Bella in the event that something did go wrong.
Bellatrix shifted. "I… I need to get home."
Andromeda winced.
Narcissa pinned Bellatrix with a stare. "I don't sleep as well. Anymore."
To Bella's credit, she had the tact to refrain from asking, anymore since when? Instead, she sighed and walked into the summer breeze. Pressing her nose against the glass of an open window, Bella laughed lightly.
"What's so funny?" Narcissa asked.
"My sisters…" Bellatrix said, casting a glance over her shoulder. "I've barely been gone a month and you're falling to pieces."
Narcissa fought against the urge to point out that Bella didn't look so wonderful herself. But she remained silent, because she couldn't deny the nagging bit of truth in Bella's reflection.
Bellatrix walked onto the balcony, leaning against the railing as though willing the night to swallow her. When it didn't, she turned to look at her sisters. Through the darkness, Bellatrix's face appeared only in shadows.
"I suppose I'd better not risk it, though," Bellatrix drawled softly. She tilted her chin to the heavens. "It looks like it's going to rain."
Author's Note: This took a ridiculously long time to write; my apologies are yours. However, if anyone is interested, I have written a few one-shot/character study type things lately which can be found on my profile. Thank you for your continuous reading/alerting/reviewing of this story! I really appreciate it.